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Lesson 1 of 6

Built-In Page Variables

① Connect your GTM container

Paste your container ID to load it into this page. It only ever runs here.

Advanced: use a specific environment

Before a tag can say anything useful, it needs values to read. The fastest source is the set of variables GTM ships with, the built-ins. There's no logic to write; you just switch them on.

Most of the page-level built-ins are simply slices of the current URL, so it helps to see where each one comes from:

{{Page URL}}https://example.com/pricing?utm=ads{{Page Hostname}}{{Page Path}}query string

Turn these four on and they become available in every trigger condition, tag field and the Tag Assistant Variables tab, the foundation almost every other lesson builds on.

Goal

Enable the built-in Page variables and confirm each one resolves to this page's real values.

Build it in GTM

  1. Open the built-in variables panel

    Go to Variables in the left sidebar. The top section is Built-In Variables; click Configure to see the full list, most are off by default to keep the panel tidy.

  2. Enable the Page group

    Tick Page URL, Page Path, Page Hostname and Referrer. Each is a read-only value GTM fills in for you on every page, no setup beyond the checkbox.

  3. Know where they show up

    Once enabled, type {{ in any tag or trigger field and they appear in the picker. In Preview, the Variables tab lists their live value for the current page, that's where you'll confirm them next.

Debug in Tag Assistant

Copy this lesson's live URL and paste it into GTM Preview, that is the page Tag Assistant connects to. It has the clickable elements, so this page stays clean for reading.

  1. In your GTM, click Preview.
  2. Paste the live URL above and click Connect.
  3. Interact with the live page and watch your tag fire in Tag Assistant.

What you should expect to see

In Tag Assistant's Variables tab, {{Page Path}}, {{Page Hostname}} and the rest resolve to this page's real values, matching the table on the live page. Nothing fires; built-ins are just values waiting to be read.

Verify your container

Built it? Export your container, Admin → Export Container, choose your workspace, then drop the JSON here to check it against this lesson.

Drop your container .json here

or browse · checked in your browser, nothing is uploaded

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